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IFGH submission on health to Irish Aid White Paper Review

Mon, 27 Aug 2012 12:15:00 +0100

Irish Forum for Global Health: Submission to the Review of the White Paper on Irish Aid, 24 April 2012

To view the complete submission click here

Key points at a glance

KEY ISSUES

Renew commitment to health as a core aspect of development and a cross cutting issue across all themes and sectors, including hunger.
Maintain the current focus on HIV and major communicable diseases and maternal and child health, building on Irish Aid’s achievements and comparative strengths in its contribution towards achieving the MDGs.
Strengthen national health systems with particular attention to the health workforce, and promote a community systems strengthening approach to health and development.
Strengthen support and engagement with key global health partnerships where Ireland can make an effective contribution to health outcomes through influence and leadership on policy and practice.
Ensure development programmes and projects are inclusive and gender-sensitive, equitable and accessible to people disadvantaged by poverty, disabilities and stigma.

WAYS OF WORKING

Focus on the poorest and most marginalised in countries through support for organisations working at community level, including NGOs and national institutions.
Collaborate and partner with Irish organisations and institutions that are aligned with Irish Aid’s objectives, including Higher Education Institutions, NGOs, the private sector and networking organisations such as the Irish Forum for Global Health.
Build on existing collaborations with the HSE and Department of Health to achieve greater coherence towards development goals and help mobilise new resources and skilled personnel to produce greater impact from development budgets.
Increase attention to evidence-based aid, measurement of development results and demonstration of value for money, and make greater use of research capacity in Ireland to support internal measurement and evaluation processes.
Integrate health as an indicator of performance across other development sectors - all interventions to address key issues such as hunger, poverty and climate change should be able to demonstrate effectiveness on basic social indicators of well-being.

Consultation documents

A number of relevant background documents were available in preparation for the consultation and are all online on the Irish Aid website at: http://www.irishaid.gov.ie/whitepaper/publications.htm In particular we would like to highlight the following:

White paper Consultation Review Paper Summary: http://www.irishaid.gov.ie/whitepaper/assets/IA-Summary%20Paper_web.pdf
Irish Aid White Paper 2006 Summary http://www.irishaid.gov.ie/whitepaper/assets/Whitepaper.pdf
White paper Consultation Review Paper: http://www.irishaid.gov.ie/whitepaper/assets/IA-Consultation%20Paper_FINAL.pdf
IRELAND AND AFRICA: Our Partnership With a Changing Continent: http://www.irishaid.gov.ie/whitepaper/assets/strategy_paper_eng.pdf

Reflections on the Global Fund: An open letter from Michel Kazatchkine

Wed, 21 Mar 2012 13:10:00 +0000

Reflections on the Global Fund: An open letter from Michel Kazatchkine
March 2012

Stepping down after five years as Executive Director of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB and Malaria, Michel Kazatchkine shares his parting views: Full letter online here:

“As I leave the Global Fund, I wish in this open letter to share a number of reflections based on the unique perspective that is afforded the Executive Director. My hope is that these observations will contribute to ongoing discussions about the Fund’s future direction as it marks its tenth anniversary and undergoes a challenging process of transition under new leadership”.

His letter goes on to elaborate on five things he wishes to emphasise as he steps down:

1. The Global Fund has been highly effective in its primary role as a financing institution

2. Global Fund financing has allowed countries to achieve unprecedented results and impact in the fight against the three diseases

3. The Global Fund has shown that it is a highly effective mechanism for translating public health and human rights principles into action

4. Partnerships require a lot of attention and work but are the only way to ensure long-term success and sustainability

5. The leadership of the Global Fund needs to carefully assess and strike a balance between competing tensions that are inherent to the Fund’s model

Financial transaction tax, aid effectiveness: Key moments for action

Mon, 14 Nov 2011 11:10:00 +0000

IFGH eForum Posting: 3.11.2011

This November provides decision-makers with two opportunities to make decisions which could make a huge difference to development and global health programmes.

G-20 and High Level Meeting on Aid Effectiveness

The first key moment is the G-20 summit taking place in France on 3-4 November, 2011. The financial transaction tax (FTT) is high on the agenda. Billions could be raised for development and the health of the worlds poorest if a financial transaction tax was adopted by a coalition of willing countries through G-20 agreement.

The second key event is the 4th High Level Meeting on Aid Effectiveness, in Busan, South Korea (29 November 1 December). The governments present, with Hillary Clintons participation, will review the progress of recent efforts to improve the effectiveness of aid and will identify commitments to continue these efforts into the future. Aid delivery systems could be improved if governments provide stronger commitments to implement the aid effectiveness principles of: ownership, alignment, harmonisation, delivering for results and mutual accountability.

What are the links?

Innovative sources of financing and aid effectiveness are closely linked. More resources need to be raised to improve the health of the worlds poorest people. At the same time donors, governments and civil society need to ensure that key aid effectiveness principles are applied in the use of funds.

A financial transaction tax should be approved during the 2012 G-20 by a coalition of willing countries

Between 2009 and 2015 there is an estimated $488 billion gap in resources to support health of the poorest, including a $125 billion gap for responding to HIV and AIDS. An FTT could make a huge difference to this.

An FTT has received a lot of influential support, including that of the Pope, Nicolas Sarkozy, Angela Merkel, Bill Gates, and the European Commission (EC). Recently over 1,000 MPs and 1,000 leading economists from over 30 countries signed petitions supporting an FTT. However, there is serious concern over the ECs proposal to spend all FTT revenues on the European budget, leaving none for climate, development or global health. It is crucial that, if an FTT goes ahead as a G-20 initiative, at least 50% of the resulting funds are allocated to supporting global work on international development, global health and other priorities.

An FTT is supported by a global movement of campaigns in more than 25 countries around the world with millions of supporters. Most recently, the Occupy Movement, a social and economic justice movement, which has mobilised over a million of people internationally, supported Robin Hood Tax in some of its locations, you can read more here.

Financial Transaction Tax and the Alliance

The Alliance has long been working on mobilising resources for HIV and AIDS through innovative sources of financing. In 2006 the Alliance contributed to development UNITAID, one of the first innovative health financing mechanisms.

The Alliance has been advocating for governments to support an FTT as a member of the Robin Hood Tax campaign since 2008. The Robin Hood UK campaign advocates that 50% of revenues from an FTT should go to domestic needs and 50 percent should be spent on global issues (25% on global health and development, 25% on climate change). The Alliance sits on the steering group of the campaign and ensures health messages and priorities are integrated in the campaigns work. Globally, Alliance India and Brazil have been lobbying their national governments to support an FTT and we have been advocating the government of South Africa to back an FTT. Stop Aids Alliance, a partnership between the Alliance and Stop Aids Now, has been conducting extensive advocacy work in Brussels to get European Commission support for an FTT.

Aid effectiveness: the need for more country ownership, communities participation and investment in evidence based interventions

Latest reviews on the progress of aid effectiveness agenda implementation demonstrate that some progress has been achieved, however it has not happened as quickly as planned. The Alliance has been involved in this work through its participation in cross-European global health network, Action for Global Health.

There are a lot of contentious issues which attendees will try to resolve during the High Level Meeting on Aid Effectiveness. What matters most is to have an efficient international and national accountability structure that will make development stakeholders accountable for old and new commitments to improve the lives of the worlds poorest.

Aid Effectiveness and the Alliance

The Alliance has been implementing the aid effectiveness principle of ownership by putting affected communities at the centre of HIV/AIDS response. The Alliance publishes its data using the International Aid Transparency Initiative standards to ensure accountability and transparency of its programmes. The Alliance is at the forefront of developing methodologies for evaluating the impact and value for money of its programmes. This helps to ensure that the aid effectiveness principle of managing for results is implemented. The Alliances key experiences and lessons learnt on implementation of aid effectiveness are outlined in the e-poster which will be presented at the High Level Meeting on Aid Effectiveness.

Key things the Alliance will be asking for ahead of Busan include:

Investment in community-based responses to ensure increased and more equitable access to HIV and health services.

Promotion of an enabling environment by having legal frameworks in place that guarantee the space, transparency and conditions necessary for civil society to meaningfully participate in aid delivery processes in order to achieve increased impact

Use of evidence generated by the HIV and health sector, particularly on community involvement, methodologies for evaluating value for money of programmes and the Strategic Investment Framework to improve effectiveness of aid.

Application of lessons learned from the HIV and health sector on how to improve alignment to national plans, budgets and M&E frameworks, such as the Three Ones and the IHP+ to inform other sectors and wider development.

Take action!

Although the time is short before the G-20, you can still make a difference. Take action today and sign the international petition is support of the Financial Transaction Tax: http://www.whatspreventingprevention.org/support-robin-hood-tax/

You can learn more about 4th High Level Meeting at Aid Effectiveness here: http://www.aideffectiveness.org/busanhlf4/en/

Source: International HIV/AIDS Alliance: http://blog.aidsalliance.org/2011/11/financial-transaction-tax-and-aid-effectiveness/?dm_i=J95,KZR3,2OUGIM,1PYQB,1

IFGH Policy and Advocacy Workshop, 30 Nov 2010: Feedback

Fri, 07 Jan 2011 12:44:00 +0000

The powerpoint presentations presents the feedback from the Policy Advocacy Resource Group that met during the IFGH Biennial Conference on 30 November 2010. This feedback suggests area of focus, principles and what IFGH can contribute.